kimie

The first records of Braunstone are found in the Doomsday Book of 1086. As a result of the Norman Conquest much of England was divided amongst William,s 1st noblemen. Braunstone was given to Hugh de Grantermesnil, one of his most trusted Barons. Over the centuries many noble families were connected with the lands of Braunstone. During the civil war ( 1642-1649 Sir Henry Hastings a younger son of the Earl of Huntingdon held allegience to the royal forces of King Charles 1. After the war his estates were confiscated by the Parliamentarians and the fine of £2072 led to bankruptcy.

The Winstanleys came to Braunstone in the mid 17th century. James Winstanley purchased the estate from the execuors of the Hastings family after the death of Henry Hastings, in 1649 for the sum of £6,000.

James Winstanley was a puritan and a lawyer by profession in the service of the Duchy of Lancaster before taking up resisence in Braunstone. He and his wife Catherine had three children. James Winstanley died in 1666 and the estate passed on to his eldest son Clement. Clement died in 1672 and was buried in the family vault under the alter of the 12th century church of St Peters Church. ( see my photo, The Orbs of Snt Peters )

James became the third Winstanly to inherit the estate. He died in 1770 and was succeeded by his son, another Clement. He commissioned the local architect and builder William Oldham, to construct the present Hall. The design typical of the period, a solid Geargian residence. The Hall was built on a rise with wiews overlooking Charnwood forest and set in one hundred acres of fine parkland. During its construction scaffolding from the top floor collapsed, killing a labourer and a stonemason with many more badly injured. This may have led to the first stories of the Hall being haunted.

It was in 1925 that Richard Pochin ( who changed his name by deed poll to Winstanley ) and his wife Kitty and six children who were still in residence that the Leicester Corporation compllsory purchased his land in Braunstone for much need ed housing

The seeds of demise for the Winstanleys and there reign in Braunstone was set in progress by a rousing speech make by David Llyod George . ” What is our tasks ” he said, ” To make Britian a fit country for heroes to live in ” Major Richard Winstanley objected to the compulsory purchase of his land on the grounds that his family still lived in the Hall. The protestations were overruled and by November/December 1925, Major Winstanley had agreed to sell the Hall, along with Parklands , Tenament Buildings, and Cottages. The purchase price was £116,500.

The land around Braunstone Hall was opened as a puplic park in the early 1930,s. In 1932, after refurbishment, Braunstone Hall opened as a Senior School. It served the community as a school untill it was closed in 1996.

Braunstone Hall and the park have long been associated with ghost stories with too many sightings for them to be dismissed or ignored. Stories of ghostly carriages drawn by black horses that disappear into the bleak spinney at the dead of night, a forlorn boy dressed in Victorian clothing whose shady figure stares out of an upstairs window. The young groom who died a tragic lonley death hanging from a beam in a room above the stables. One of the stories relates to a young girl in white who walks the corridors of the Hall. Her appearance was so regular that the apparition was almost thought of as normal. The apparition scared the young Winstanleys who had nothing but candles for light, making there way along the murky corridors to there quarters on the top floor of the Hall. They would walk by the Governess,s room where most of the sightings occured. The young girl could be on of two sisers who left the Hall to join a Roman Cathlolic convent, tragically the youngest, May, died of TB at the age of 18 while still a novice. Her sister Georgina died 34 years later in 1933.

Although the Hall and Stable block are a Grade 11 listed building, the Hall now stands in a very bad state of repair. It seems now that the ” powers that be ” are leaving it to go to rack and ruin. There has been no interest in the place since it closed down as a school. With all the histroy that surrounds the Hall and Parklands, its such a shame for it just to be left to rot. The Hall ( in my view ) is the “Jewel in the Crown” of Braunstone and should be renavated to its former glory.